Funds are requested to assist in the 2001 Gordon Research Conference on the Chemical Senses, July 1-6, Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. Financial support from the NIDCD will be used to defray partially the travel and meeting costs incurred by the invited speakers, discussants, and session organizers. In addition, registration and travel scholarships are requested for young investiga-tors (postdocs and students) with preference given to minority applicants. The meeting will consist of a plenary lecture by Craig Venter (Biology in the Postgenomic Millennium), a workshop on bio-informatics and genomics, and seven focused sessions highlighting the future of chemosensory research. The theme and title of the conference, Chemical Senses in the Postgenomic Era, is particularly timely given the recent completion of the DNA sequences of the genomes of C. elegans, Drosophila and human. Topics chosen are undergoing rapid technological and conceptual growth. All of the invited speakers and discussion leaders are experts in the field of chemoreception or genomics, or are from ancillary fields. In contrast to other meetings involving researchers of the Chemical Senses, such as the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, the upcoming Gordon Research Conference on the Chemical Senses will be restricted in both scope and attendance. This feature along with the unconventional meeting format is designed to promote uninhibited and penetrating discussion and to generate new insights and directions for future research. The need for a specialized national meeting in the Chemical Senses with emphasis on post-genomic approaches to this field reflects the rapid evolution of knowledge within both genomics and the Chemical Senses and a corresponding growth in the number of talented researchers devoting themselves to these problems. Our aim is to have an open forum, offered uniquely by the Gordon Research Conference format, whereby experts in the field can share their most recent findings, thoughts, and speculations. Consequently, this should further progress in chemosensory research and aid the overall mission of the NIDCD.